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My POV
by Brian A. Wilson
LEARN TO WRITE A SCRIPT BY MAKING A MOVIE, part 2
Last week, I extolled the virtues of making your own short film. In an industry where it's hard to find a sense of completion, closure or accomplishment, making your own short film will give you immense satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
Let's assume you think this is a good idea.
Where do you begin?
It all starts with a compelling, well-written script.
Such a script will present an engaging story in a succinct yet powerful form. In turn, this will attract someone who wants to direct your work. Perhaps it's you, perhaps someone you've met along the way. In turn, that director will help secure your cast, through either reputation, skill or personal charm.
With the talent on board, a shooting script and a director, you've got the green light. Assemble a crew based on this and you're good to go. You don't need much; the director can act as DP, or you may secure a DP who will supply a mini-DV camera. Cajole someone into running the boom pole if you're doing sound. An easier solution is to shoot MOS and lay in voiceover narration and music to tie your script together later. Think you don't know anyone to crew? Baloney. People love to help. Ask around, you'll be surprised at who wants to help make a film.
The main thing is, don't over-complicate crewing up the project to the point that you don't do it. The goal isn't to get everything perfect, but to get the script shot.
Your mini-project will be a miniaturized version of the studio film. The decisions and headaches and compromises and changes and successes will be smaller, but they'll still be there. Your budget can be anything from fifty bucks (enough to feed people) to a couple thousand, if you're a bored, trust-fund kind of person! As producer/writer, you may realize that the car in scene three doesn't need to be a Porsche, that in fact your ?89 Celica gets the story told just as well. Actor stumbling over that exquisite dialogue? Whack it or change it--just like the big boys do.
Do what needs to be done. Get it shot. A 3-page script should take a long afternoon. Eight pages took me about 11 hours, including a meal break. Just do it.
Still believe that every word is precious? Wait until you get to the editing stage. You'll wish you'd cut half the dialogue so you could get off the actor and move the scene along. But that's OK--you'll be learning every step of the way.
NEXT WEEK: Cutting and Finishing Your Movie
Until then, work on a short script!
BW
bigtex@loop.com
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